Part 49: Shark (2b of 2)
Part 49: Shark (2b of 2)Turn 31
This image is the last time I'll show the lower island. The bomber heads for our new airport to rearm and refuel, while the nearby fighters wait their turn to do the same. So the next few turns will just have a plane getting supply and headed back out to the fight, while the infantry slowly takes over the whole island.
The lower bridge sees our fighters headed down to take care of the enemy fighter. Our damaged medium tank retreats but a fresh one is right behind it and heavily damages a rocket. Our bombers continue to swarm hitting most of the rockets and a medium tank. The highlighted rocket here is the only one left that can really hurt us, and it can't reach the medium tank. We also advance a couple rockets and an AA missile to support the lower bridge, and retreat a bomber that ran out of ammo to our advance airport for a supply next turn.
All the attention the AI spent on the lower bridge resulted in no one really left at the upper bridge. We took care of a damaged enemy fighter and then moved everyone forward to secure the area. That lead medium tank on the airport is going to take a hit from the last enemy bomber, but our nearby fighters will make sure it only gets off one shot.
We can only build one unit so I opt for a medium tank, since we had one take two rocket hits last turn and another is about to eat a bomber strike this turn.
We indeed take the hit from the bomber, and this tank also feels brave enough to hit a medium tank, but that's about all the action up here.
The one mostly-intact rocket hits one of our infantry, and then the medium tanks again take their turns and move around fruitlessly before the damaged rockets retreat, losing the opportunity to hit our medium tank.
Hard drive filled up right at the end of the turn, and I missed grabbing Blue's builds here until starting a new video at the start of the next turn, but we have here a scout, an AA missile, a tank, an AA tank, a copter, and a mech. You know the AI is getting cash-strapped when it starts resorting to scouts. So with another 205 minutes gone by (75 minutes on the enemy phase this time), we head into the final stretch.
Turn 32
Light action at the upper bridge: The rockets finish off a damaged rocket and damaged tank, a fighter takes out the bomber, and medium tanks swarm the AA tank but can't finish it off.
The area just beyond the lower bridge is getting crowded. Our medium tank advanced to hit the healthiest rocket, while a rocket that went across the upper bridge actually got close enough to finish off a medium tank. Our bomber fleet took out an AA tank, a rocket, and a medium tank while hitting two other medium tanks. Finally two fighters went after a copter but couldn't quite destroy it. We also get a couple rockets across the lower bridge ready to help out next turn, and merge together two infantry to try and capture something soon.
Some merges freed up space for us to build three units, so we go with a fighter and two bombers here.
The new enemy scout for some reason went straight at our fighter and lost 60% of its Life as a result. Two more medium tanks showed up but we can choke them in that mountain pass if needed.
This rocket retreated, but only after everyone else nearby had already acted, so only one medium tank was able to lightly hit our medium tank. The half-repaired fighter hit our bomber, and that was it for the enemy phase.
Bomber, copter, tank, and AA tank.
Turn 33
We take another city on the lower island, and the last city on our island and last neutral city on the map. Technically the capture race isn't over until the last neutral property is taken, so I guess we won it?
Upper bridge action: Two damaged medium tanks finish off the AA tank, while a rocket, two bombers, and a full-strength medium tank take out two enemy medium tanks. Our fighter also finishes off the scout that came for it, while a damaged fighter finishes off a copter that ran away. With the city here now open, a copter drops off an infantry for some capturing payback.
Down at the lower bridge: Two rockets remove the tank from the port, and with a bomber taking out the other medium tank blocking it, we're able to get an infantry there to start capturing it. A medium tank hits the AA tank to keep it from doing too much to our planes on the enemy phase. Two bombers take out another medium tank further in, as two fighters down the enemy fighter. A damaged bomber also finishes off a damaged rocket, sitting way out in front of the rest of our troops. Another loaded copter arrives, dropping off another infantry at another of Blue's cities. Back at the HQ we build a couple of replacement bombers for some planes that we merged together down here.
The new bomber took out our medium tank and opened up the pass for this AA tank to finish off a damaged fighter, but that was about it for the enemy phase. The AI built a scout, a medium tank, a tank, and a copter.
Turn 34
Donw in this lower area, an AA missile shot down one copter while two fighters took out another. A couple bombers then hit a foritified tank and a fighter and a copter went after another copter, but neither were destroyed. We also finished capturing the port and started taking a city.
Taking a port from the enemy has a bit different animation with the enemy soldier getting kicked out straight into the water with a little splash. Kind of cute. I missed it the first couple times but caught it here.
In the upper area, we had a medium tank destroy an AA tank, and two damaged medium tanks merged together to hold the pass. Closer to the middle, two bombers wiped out a tank, a fighter wrecked a bomber, and two more bombers destroyed a medium tank. For reinforcements we picked up a trio of bombers.
I haven't shown this part of the map much, but I noticed a loaded copter headed for the upper island and set up a copter and a fighter nearby to head it off. A second loaded copter also showed up this turn, but that one is in range of our AA missile.
The new scout shot down a bomber and the new copter blew up a copter. An AA tank also finished off a fighter. Just off-screen in the upper pass, a tank threw itself against our medium tank blockade and lost. Blue then retreated its damaged planes and built a rocket, an AA missile, an AA tank, and a copter.
Turn 35
In this upper area: Two fighters, an AA missile, and a copter combine to take out the two loaded copters. Rockets finish off one tank, and soften up another for a bomber to finish off. More bombers file in from the lower area, avoiding an AA tank that I can't deal with after having lost the medium tank in that area.
Down here we have a fighter finishes off the scout, while another hits a copter while staying away from the AA tank. Everyone else moves forward while keeping the planes away from the AA tank. Back at the base, we build two fighters and two medium tanks for some variety and to replace recent and expected future losses.
Not much happened here - a partially-repaired bomber hit our rocket, and a new tank came out to challenge our medium tank. Down off-screen two damaged copters merged together, and after a lot more shuffling around, Blue built a scout and a bomber in one last air raid.
Turn 36
We finally take the last property on the upper island. Note how I put a third infantry here to speed things up. Now we try to ferry the infantry back to the main enemy island to take the unprotected cities outside the mountain barrier.
Two medium tanks each hit an AA missile, a rocket hits an enemy rocket, and an AA missile shoots down the not-repaired enemy bomber. Our fighters go after the new bomber and a copter, and for each one another ammo-less fighter merges into it. Bombers fly in to finish off both AA missiles and the rocket (thus why you don't see them here) before hitting the tank and two loaded APCs still shown. We build two more bombers back at HQ; it'll be nothing but bombers from here on out, so I won't be mentioning them anymore.
The new scout shoots down a bomber, our medium tanks each take a hit from a bomber and a medium tank, and we lose a fighter to a pair of AA tanks. We also had a couple damaged copters and a tank head out for some chip damage on capturing infantry; our captures at this point are more harassment than strategic so getting the enemies out of the way is better of us anyway. Blue then builds a medium tank, a tank, and a copter - no more planes at least!
Turn 37
I've been carrying around this last AA tank for awhile, and it finally comes in handy taking down this copter. We also take the airport that was just past the upper bridge, and finish off the damaged tank and copter in the lower area with a rocket and an AA missile, respectively. Another AA missile shot down the damaged bomber that hit us last turn. Also pictured here is a line of rockets mixed with loaded APCs all clustered together. Tough to send in our medium tanks, at least it would be if I were worried about taking damage anymore.
We end up taking out the AA missile and half of the rockets but our medium tank is still going to get hid hard on the enemy phase.
Closer to the enemy HQ, our rockets hit a tank and AA tank, our bombers finished off a loaded APC and tank, and one medium tank hit the full-strength AA tank, while the other heavily-damaged medium tank was just strong enough to finish off this AA tank.
This lower area is getting slowly cleared out, as an AA tank kills itself on our fresh bomber.
We lost our damaged medium tank to a fresh tank, and our other medium tank took a hit from the fresh medium tank. The damaged enemy scout flew up to pick on a bomber, with a damaged AA tank chipping at our fighter. Just off-screen the enemy rockets did wreck our medium tank. Blue builds a rocket, an AA missile, and an AA tank this time.
Turn 38
Just marking the turn by celebrating taking the last of the neutral ports/airports on the map. Not too long ago Blue owned every single one of these except one of the ports on our island, now they're all ours. That last city will join us in two more turns, too. While I'm showing this screen, that enemy rocket finally falls to our rocket. Blue now only has what's right next to its HQ.
One fighter finishes off the scout while another teams up with an AA missile to shoot down a copter. Our rockets hit a tank, our damaged medium tank finishes off an AA tank, and then our other medium tank merges into it. Our fleet of bombers collectively wipe out a loaded APC, hit the upper rockets (destroying one), and take a couple shots at the battleship, AA missile, and medium tank to keep them from hurting us too bad on the enemy phase.
The AA missile shoots down a bomber, the AA tank finishes off a fighter, the APC hurt our AA missile, and the medium tank hurts our rocket. The battleship scratched another of our fighters but nothing too bad. Blue builds two copters, a mech, and a medium tank. The copters will be the hardest ones to deal with, given we have mostly bombers on the way.
Turn 39
The AA missiles take aim at the copters and the rockets finish off the advance medium tank and start on a supply. The fighters finish off one copter, while the medium tanks - both heavily damaged now - keep the AA tank in check. The bombers finish off the battleship, the AA missile, a rocket, the tank, and a loaded APC while hitting some other units but not destroying them. That's a total of eight kills this turn, with ten enemy units remaining. If it weren't for our bombers running out of ammo, we'd be done even sooner.
On the enemy phase we lose a medium tank to a rocket and an infantry to a medium tank and copter. The AI then puts out a tank, a rocket, and another copter.
Turn 40
The rockets took care of the medium tank and APC, the fighters took out a copter, and a medium tank finally finished off the last AA tank. The bombers destroyed two rockets and a supply but I need to wait for reinforcements to end this thing.
We suffer a couple of attacks but don't lose anyone, as Blue builds an AA missile and an AA tank in a last-ditch effort to ward off our bombers.
Turn 41
Our AA tank shot down a copter, proving it was worth me hauling it all the way across the map. Our medium tanks took out the tank and enough of the AA tank for a bomber to finish it off. The rest of the bombers handily removed a mech, a tank, and two supply trucks but I was down just one attack on the AA missile to end the map here. So we're left just short again.
The AA missile gets off a shot on a bomber, and then puts out a medium tank and a copter. We've got this.
Turn 42
A final look at how we've turned this map around. Blue has fewer cities now than when it started the map.
Look at all those units built on this map! Clearly we were pretty plane heavy ourselves, but we also defeated 27 medium tanks, 23 rockets, and 18 bombers along the way.
The difference in the killed lists is even more wild - we hardly lost any units in comparison. I did a lot more retreats and merges instead of losing entire units most of the time, and of course we will end the map with a full army that's still alive and intact. Building 37 bombers and only getting 7 of them killed is an interesting feat. Another interesting stat - we built five rockets and four AA missiles and didn't lose a single one, leaving us free to focus on pumping out direct attackers for most of the map. On the other hand, we built nine AA tanks and only one made it to the end.
I know we had a lot of bombers out there (ten just in this screenshot, with two more just off-screen in the lower mountains and several reinforcements on the way) but let's celebrate a more balanced attack by ending the map without a single bomber this turn. The rockets and the medium tanks together take out the new medium tank and the AA missile. Then our own AA missile hits the new copter, allowing this scrappy AA tank to finally end this.
Finally! Our total runtime for this map: Almost 13 hours, of which we had five hours just watching the AI think and move. I'm pretty sure some modern strategy campaigns as a whole don't last as long as that one map did. To be honest that's just the final cut - I probably spent another 5-6 hours perfecting those first dozen turns or so until I came up with an exact build-move-attack pattern that worked.
We were within a couple turns of actually catching up to Blue on total gold spent, though I'm not sure if Blue's total counts the pre-built units or not. Our CO was some kind of panda maybe? And the Blue CO just looks like a crying baby to me, but I can't see straight after so long staring at this screen.
I have no idea what a good score is for this map, but I dare anyone to do better. I'll cut off the update here, but we have some final wrap-up still to go.